Coconspirators
by BohemianCane04
Summary: The first thing to register was the sound of gulls. They chattered and called mournfully through the darkness behind James’ eyelids. My first pirates fic EVER. Be kind. Fixit fic. TiaJames if you squint


**A/N: Ok this is not only my first "Pirates" fic but my very first oneshot in general so be gentle. A little background, in looking up Calypso on the internet I found that in the original mythology she wasn't exactly a goddess but an immortal creature called a Nereid, one of the fifty daughters of Posidon. They were always kind to sailors in unfavorable conditions. The other sisters mentioned are names of other Nereids. **

**Originally written for the At World's End challenge at **onenorrington **on livejournal as a result of this prompt:**

James wakes up half in water, half on shore. A small grey crab is near his head, looking at him in a way that can only be described as quizzical. There is a hole in his shirt and a raw, red scar on his chest, but his heart is definitely beating and present. He has absolutely no idea where he is. (no slash, no Elizabeth. A cat-- a counterpoint to the ubiquitous pirate dog.)

**Disclaimer: James isn't mine, neither is Calypso. The suicidal mickey mouse owns them (if you get that reference you rock.)**

"Coconspirators"

The first thing to register was the sound of gulls. They chattered and called mournfully through the darkness behind James' eyelids. As the mocking cries increased in volume he slowly began to feel again. From the waist down he was sopping wet. Water as warm and salted as tears moved back and forth across him, soothing like a mother's touch. But a cool breeze made the frayed edge of his garment dance upon his chest. The softness of sand pillowed his head and weighed down his earthen hair. Struggling to peel back his eyelids he was met with nothing but blaring sunlight and a cyan sky sharper than any blade. There were also blurred shadows of color moving quickly across his less-than-adequate vision. White, brown, blue, yellow, accompanied by flutterings of something soft against his skin. And all the time the gulls called and called. He struggled to clear his mind, tried to remember.

_The ship. The Flying Dutchman. Elizabeth. Destinies. A kiss he took. No one leaves the ship. Part of the crew. Had to save Elizabeth. The blade. The blood. Do you fear death? Death…_

He was dead. And birds ate the dead. With panicked effort he rolled his head to the side only to find himself at eye level with a pair of slate grey claws. They moved menacingly. James Norrington's eyes went wide in his head and he fainted away.

The tiny gray crab looked at the newly unconscious man with strangely emotive black eyes, clicking its claws together nervously. It seemed to look up at one of the many forms now bent over the body. Each had long hair that graced the sailor's skin. Their hands touched his in fascination. Their whispers penetrated his mind.

A feminine voice spoke to the creature sharply.

"Now there, see what you did? Scared him to death!"

"Don't blame it, Dynamene. He has floated so very long. We were late in finding him."

"Well we did have a battle to oversee as well did we not, Ligea? Even with so many of us we cannot be expected to be everywhere," the voice of Orithiya cut across her sister.

"There were ever so many more men than our fifty." It was Haile who spoke thus.

"Indeed so why do we wait here? Why did Calypso order our saving this one man when even her Davy Jones has died in the fray?" was the question of Beroe, one of the eldest. "Her grief cannot be consoled and yet we use stores of our power to resurrect a man she did not know even in her human form."

"Our sister is wise as well as kind." This from Sao with her deep black eyes. "Whatever she will do for this man, and his mortal brethren, she does with a purpose."

"Aye and what have they ever done in return?" Boroe snapped. "We have only just regained our lost Calypso from those creatures we had sworn to protect and even now she is a shadow of her former self. I'll not see that happen again."

"You will do as commanded."

Fifty heads turned 'round as out of wind whipped sand there appeared a lithe cat, blacker than night with two keys on a metal ring around its throat. The sand kicked up again and with a screech the animal transformed into the aforementioned sister. The others bowed their heads and were silent as she approached. Once again her form was human, though she never stayed that way for long. Her skin was smooth as polished cedar wood, her legs long and naked. Her night black hair as gnarled and matted and coated in leaves as the very day she had been bound. The keys still remained clasped at her throat where once a silver music box had been.

Calypso grinned with blackened lips as the tiny crab that had frightened James so thoroughly scuttled into her outstretched palm. She brought her pet to eye level and stroked its shell with one willowy finger before letting it crawl to her shoulder and into the tangled mane. She then bent down and surveyed the young man's body, eyes drawn to the tender scar that marred his chest as it rose and fell in breath.

"James Norrington did not deserve to die," she told her sisters without so much as a glance in their path. "In a war waged over a heart only his, for all its suffering, remained pure."

**R&R please!**


End file.
